Their website is pure genius. You get to choose from a large selection of clothing patterns, have it printed with any Spoonflower design and then just cut it out and assemble when it arrives. No need to buy the pattern or pin anything. The pattern really is printed right on the fabric!! It’s amazing.

All of the pieces have a white border around them, and are labeled very clearly so there is no question about where to cut.

For my first project I decided to try out the Kids Recess Raglan. I went with my own Stripes, Dots & Gems fabric design for the sleeves and Heidi Kenney’s Mermaid fabric for the body. I have been looking for a reason to use those mermaids, they are just too cute!

The fabric was easy enough to cut out, and the little labels were perfect for keeping track of what was what.

The hardest part for me, assembly wise, was the collar. I had never attached a collar using a serger before, so There may have been a few curse words used. (or a lot) I think if I practice more, I won’t be as frustrated next time.

I also didn’t attach the little blue tabs, because the frustration had taken over and I wasn’t ready for them. I regret that now, because that pop of blue would have been perfect.

Overall though I was very pleased with the outcome, and my daughter loved it even more!

So much so, it was very hard to get a good shot of her wearing it. She wouldn’t stop moving!!

I also tested out the Lane Raglan in an adult size and the Lined Zipper Pouch. They were both super easy to assemble, and hopefully I’ll have photos of them to share soon! I’m also eyeing the Moneta Dress, but I’m going to try it with plain fabric first, just to make sure I’m ready!

Long Story Short: Go check out Sprout Patterns, you will not be dissapointed!!

CT’s first day of Kindergarten was this past week. It was a HUGE milestone for both of us, so of course I had to take loads of photos.

I also figured I should make a little sign so we never forget it was the first day of school.

Then after much thought I decided on a second piece that can be detached that says which year of school shes starting.

All of this snowballed into the fabric banner above! It’s 8″ square with marine grade vinyl letters cut out using my Sizzix Fabi and the Block Talk Alphabet Die Set. The background is Andover Fabrics chambray in black. I made it pretty much the exact same way as my Appliqued Vinyl Letter Pillow.

I also added snaps to the bottom of the banner so I could make an attachment for each year she is in school. I plan on making all the grades later this week when things have calmed down around here and putting this in a safe place.

The idea of her using this every year makes me all teary eyed! Can you imagine her in 12th grade holding this little banner?!?!?

As you may be able to tell, I’m a complete mess over her going to school. Yes I gained 8 uninterrupted hours each weekday, but I still miss her soooooooooo much. Does it get easier?!?

As stated above in the required disclosure, I was a pattern tester for this awesome Comp Book Cover Sewing Pattern by Angela Bowman Design. I love pattern testing, so when I saw she was looking for testers, I jumped on it. It’s a pattern for a standard sized or mini composition book cover, with numerous options when it comes to pockets and what the cover is made from. You can make a quilted cover or a non quilted. You have a few options for the closure too. Basically you can make a cover to fit your exact needs!

I was late to the testing pool, so I only had two days to try this pattern out. I finished it in 1.5 hours. It’s that awesome. I went the quilted route, but decided to use some of my cheater quilt fabric from Spoonflower to make the process go by even faster. I also only added one large pocket on each inside flap (I don’t have photos of that part yet because CT has already claimed this as her sketchbook journal cover) and I went with an elastic closure. I made it about a week and a half ago, and its already been dragged around by a very energetic five year old. It’s holding up perfectly!

The pattern was just released this week, and it’s a very reasonable $5 to download. So if you’d like to make one of your own, go check it out! You can also read Angela’s post that talks more in depth about it all here.

I myself am not done playing with this pattern, so keep an eye out for more variations…

I explain what type of design files I used, the dimensions of these exact drawers and more. If you’d like to read more check out the post!

They are PERFECT gift toppers or small gifts for when you just have way too many family members! They are also great for kids with unique names, so they can have their own personalized ornaments every year.

You can see more photos and a full description here.

Pin It]]> http://artschooldropout.net/blog/personalized-ceramic-ornaments-for-silhouette-america/feed/ 0 http://artschooldropout.net/blog/my-doll-and-me-coordinating-skirt-set-for-silhouette-america/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-doll-and-me-coordinating-skirt-set-for-silhouette-america http://artschooldropout.net/blog/my-doll-and-me-coordinating-skirt-set-for-silhouette-america/#comments Mon, 15 Sep 2014 16:38:08 +0000 jesseesuem http://artschooldropout.net/blog/?p=3281 Continue reading →]]> I’m super behind in posting all of the projects I’ve been working on. There have been several Silhouette pieces and a bunch of my own. I think I just got to wound up in the making process and never felt like I had the time to sit down and blog.

Well, I decided this week to change that. I love this blog and I feel so bad that I left it alone for TWO whole months! I have a serious backlog of pictures and stuff. It’s been interesting sorting through it all.

So to help jump start everything, here is a project I did for Silhouette America’s blog back in July.

It was a matching skirt set for CT and one of her American Girl dolls! She had been asking me for awhile to sew up some clothes and I figured a skirt would be the best thing to start out with.

You can see the full post and all of the supplies I used over on the Silhouette America Blog!

 Also, if you are new here and would like to keep up on all the new projects I will be posting then please add me on BlogLovin!

I also added something not nerd related, unless you’re a sewing nerd…

New hand cast plastic buttons in a load of different colors. All available in sets of seven, so they would be perfect for blouses, cardigans, dresses and lots of items that aren’t clothing.

Oh and one more thing, I put the Home Sweet Home banner made with sprinkles up as a Pre Order. There was a lot of requests for me to make more and it just happens to be one of the few pieces I can make over and over and have it look the same. So I know exactly How many to make of these, a pre order is the only way to go. What if I make too few? Or too many?

I plan on casting again next week, so expect to also see a larger selection of colors when it comes to these banners. Any Color combos you’d like to see? Any you would like me to attempt again?

Especially from my very hyper toddler who snuck too many Hershey Kisses. A dozen in a two minutes to be exact. She can unwrap those things QUICK!!!!

They had loads of places to land, but sometimes if you were lucky they’d land of you! they landed on my husband A LOT.

Plus there are people walking around telling you about the butterflies and even helping you catch one on a paint brush (you aren’t allowed to touch them) CT was able to hold the paintbrush a few times. It was one of the highlights of her birthday.

Right before you walk into the pavilion they also an exhibit where they teach you all about the life cycle of butterflies and moths. If you go at certain times of day they also have other huge insects that you can hold… if you’re brave enough.

If you are ever in DC I highly recommend this as a stop! It’s $6 an adult, $5 per kid to get into the pavilion, but its SO worth it. I’d do it every month, maybe even twice a month. I’d recommend buying tickets ahead of time just in case, they only allow a certain amount of visitors per half hour. Oh and if you on Tuesdays it’s free!! (but you should still reserve tickets online, I imagine the free days are packed)

I’m already looking forward to when the holiday season is over so we can head back down. We were told that each time you visit is a completely different experience. I want to see if that’s true.

First we checked out the Dinosaur Skeletons and Fossils, since that was her first request. It’s also a big thing in the game. You dig up fossils, take them to the museum and a little owl guy checks them out and then you have skeletons that you can donate to the museum or sell for profit.

I may have gone a bit overboard with the photos, but seriously the Smithsonian is SO COOL! I grew up visiting all the museums on field trips, with my family and then as a teenager with my friends. I had the biggest smile on my face all day watching CT freak out about everything. She is really into skeletons and such right now (Thanks to the Dr. Suess book: Inside Your Outside, All About the Human Body) So the exhibits actually kept her attention.

Lucky for us there was also a small exhibit with live fish. So we could check that off the Animal Crossing list.

They also had gems and live butterflies like in the game! (I took so many photos of the butterflies that they require their own post)

As you can tell from our required photo outside the museum, it was COLD! I think it was freezing temps actually. Don’t worry, we were all super bundled up.

To end our Animal Crossing themed museum trip, we headed next door to the National Gallery of Art Sculptural Garden. Seriously one of my absolute favorite places! CT loved walking underneath the sculptures and see just how big they were!.

The entire day was just so much fun. We all enjoyed ourselves and are already planning another trip down. There’s so much more to see!!!

Check back tomorrow for my ridiculous amount of butterfly pictures from the Live Butterfly Pavilion at the Smithsonian.